“Back up,” I said to Artus as I crawled away from the edge of the stairs and back into the first hallway.
“What are we going to do?” I asked as we both stood and took a few steps back from the corner.
“It looks like four of them are carrying her,” I said as I glanced down at my weapons. “I’m guessing that they are easy to kill.”
“I’m not sure, Leo. I don’t really get into fighting type situations.”
“What did you see?” Allurie asked.
“Artus called them gnolbolds. Do you know of them?” I asked the elf girl.
“Oh yes. They are almost as dumb as goblins. They are scared of everything, and will run away from magic if they don’t have a shaman leader.”
“It looks like they have a large one down there giving them directions. It had a sword on its belt.”
“They probably don’t have a shaman then.” Her eyes got really big. “You can scare them with your magic. Just blast them with a fireball, and they will run away.”
“Allurie, I don’t know how to make a fireball,” I said as I shook my head. “They are bringing a dwarf up here right now. Step back from the corner.” I gestured for both of them to move twenty feet away from the end of the corridor. Then I looked back at the drawings on the walls and realized what was actually going on.
“Back to the stairs!” I whispered urgently to them as I started running. Allurie was surprisingly fast, and the elf girl managed to keep pace with me while I ran all the way back to the other end of the long hallway.
“What are we going to do here?” Artus wheezed after he had limped to the stairwell.
“Climb up a few steps. I’m going to ambush them here and free the dwarf. I’m guessing that they intend to throw her to the spiders. The gnolbolds probably think that the spiders won’t attack them if they keep getting fed. It is probably how the spiders have been able to stay up there with no obvious food supply.
“Ahh. I get it,” Artus said as he climbed up with Allurie.
I waited for a few minutes around the first bend of the staircase. I could hear the group approaching because of the woman dwarf’s protests, and I was ready for them with my daggers as soon as they started to climb the stairs.
The first gnolbold wasn’t even looking up the stairs as he walked. The creature was too busy wrestling with the dwarven woman’s legs as she tried to break free of their grasp, and his dog like face appeared to have a very annoyed expression on it. The second gnolbold wasn’t paying much attention either, and I guessed the creatures would never have expected someone to be waiting here to ambush them.
The dwarf’s legs weren’t very long, so I was able to step close enough to the small dog men to use my dagger. My right blade plummeted into the chest of the first monster, and my left dagger punched into the other one’s skull between its eyes. They didn’t even scream as they died, but they did let go of the dwarf’s legs, and the other two gnolbolds let out surprised yips when the woman began to slide from their hands.
I let go of my left dagger, caught the woman in my arm as she fell, and then side kicked the monster that held onto her left arm. The side of my foot connected squarely with his long nose, and his skull caved in with a satisfying smash.
The last monster let go of the dwarf woman with a gasp of fright. I almost felt bad for the little creature. I’d just dealt with three of its friends in less than two seconds, and now I was about to end its existence, but as the dagger in my right hand descended toward its neck, I remembered that he was about to feed a woman to a group of giant spiders, and I didn’t feel so bad.
The dagger sliced the left part of his neck open, and his furry head practically rolled off his shoulders like one of those old Pez candy dispensers. Blood splashed onto the other wall of the stairwell, but I managed to pull the woman out of the way of the spray so that we didn’t get any of it on us.
The dwarf’s eyes were opened wide with surprise, and she gasped when I pulled her to the side. When I set her feet down on the stairs, she seemed to gain her composure and glanced up and down my naked body.
“Who in the Shadow are you?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.
“He’s Leo! Isn’t he wonderful?” Allurie sang from the steps above us.
“He looks kind of naked to me. Human, have you lost your mind? Why are you walking around here naked?”
“It is a long story. Here, let me untie you,” I said as I used my dagger to cut through the ropes that were wrapped around her chest, arms, and stomach. She looked kind of like one of those prisoners in the old cartoons that were wrapped up with way too much rope and then thrown onto the railroad tracks. When the cords fell away from her, she let out a long exhale and stretched her arms over her head. The short woman wore brown pants with thick knit knee pads, a matching long sleeve tunic, a thick leather belt, and polished leather boots. I guess it kind of looked like adventure gear, but the clothes looked clean.
“I guess I should say thank you for saving me, but I’m betting that you are just delaying the inevitable. When these mutts don’t return to the rest of their tribe, they will come looking. Can we get out by going up?” The dwarf woman pointed up the stairs past Artus and Allurie. Then the woman seemed to really notice my two friends, and she looked at me with a puzzled expression. “You are with an elf and a fenia? You are one weird human. Maybe the naked stuff makes more sense now.”
“The way up is blocked, and we fought through a bunch of spiders to get down here.”
“How did you get down here in the first place? Was there a cave in?” she asked.
“No. We are under the castle of Cutno. The guards chased us down here.”
“Cutno? Tickle my tit and punch me in the nose! I’m far from where those gnolbolds grabbed me.”
“Where was that?” Artus asked.
“My clan's stronghold is at the foot of Toorta Peak in the Laven Mountains.”
“Huh. I didn’t know any dwarves--”
“We don’t like to advertise we are there. The mining is really good, and most of the city folk don’t poke their noses around because of the monsters. We are self-sufficient with our livestock and mushroom farms. It’s about a ten-mile trip. I didn’t think the gnolbolds had carried me that far.”
“How did they capture you? Oh, and what is your name?” I asked her with a smile.
“Gratia Kleinhold.” She raised her fist up to the air as if she was in a half boxing stance. “What’s your name, naked human?”
“Leo.”
“Raise your damn fist, Leo. Haven’t you ever met a dwarf before?”
“Uhhh. Sorry.” I raised my fist in front of me, and she kind of ‘fist bumped’ it. “These are my friends, Artus and Allurie.”
“Leo and I are going to mate,” the elf woman said. “Do you want to watch or take part?”
“Well. I’m of a mind to say ‘no’ to that question, but…” The dwarf woman looked across at my penis and kind of smirked, “If you all can get me back home alive. I’d be open to trying something new. As a way to celebrate--”
“No one is having sex with anyone. Allurie is a little…” I trailed off as I tried to think of the right word to describe Allurie that wasn’t ‘nympho.'
“Elven! Ha, I gottcha, Leo. You look like you’ve got some muscles. You aren’t as strong, handsome, or stout as an average dwarf Blood Smith, but you took care of those four furry bastards. Do you have a plan to get out of here?” Gratia asked.
“I had planned on exploring the tunnels until we found a way out.”
“And the castle guards? Did you have sex with Lord Halafast’s daughter or something?” She glanced at my naked body again with a raised eyebrow.
“No. It is a long story.” Damn it, I really wanted some clothes. At least a pair of pants.
“His wife?” she snickered. “Or mistress?”
“No, it has to do with one of his sons. I accidentally--”
“Well! You are the first homo human I’ve met! What a crazy
day this has been! Ha!” The she-dwarf let out a laugh that I thought was probably a little too loud considering there were a hundred monsters at the bottom of the stairs just one cavern over from ours.
“I’m not really ga--”
“That’s why you’re not banging that elf, huh? I guess it makes sense.”
“Leo? Is that really why you haven’t mated with me yet? You prefer men? I know that Artus is your dear friend, and now I feel very bad for asking you to have sex with me. That must have made you feel very uncomfortable,” Allurie said with a forlorn expression on her pretty face.
“No. That isn’t--”
“Leo, my friend,” Artus said as he raised his cat hands. “I am very thankful for you, but I must let you know that I do prefer women of the fenia race. I apologize if I may have misrepresented our friendship. You are a great friend, but I would prefer if we just kept our relationship that way. Is that okay?” Artus winced as he asked his question.
“You guys. I’m not gay. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but I prefer women.”
“So you just don’t like me?” Allurie asked as her brows angled upward with despair.
“I like you a lot. This doesn’t have anything to do with--”
“Maybe he doesn’t like elves? I can understand. They are kind of stupid,” Gratia said with a casual shrug.
“We aren’t stupid, dwarf! Stupid is digging holes all day and never having fun!” Allurie shot a glare at the shorter woman.
“Mining is fun! As is drinking beer, and pummeling anything I don’t like with a weapon. Right now, I’m not liking you very much you pointy-eared sex crazed idiot. So it is a good thing I don’t have a weapon.”
“That’s mean! You’re mean! Leo, Gratia is--”
“Shhhh!” I waved to them as my eyes caught something at the far end of the corridor. The other three had been facing each other, and they hadn’t noticed the light over there was growing brighter. It was clear to me that some of the gnolbolds from the other chamber were climbing the stairs.
“I need a weapon,” Gratia whispered after the four of us had ducked behind the stairwell corner.
“Here,” I said as I pulled a short sword from its scabbard and handed it to her.
“A sword? Are you daft, human? I’m a dwarf. Give me your damn axe.” The short woman pushed the flat of the blade from me as if I was trying to hand her a sack of dog shit.
“Fine,” I sighed as I gave Gratia my magical ax.
“Ahh. This is a good blade. Fits well in my hand. You aren’t so bad for a homo human, Leo.”
“I actually like women, not that there is anything wrong with liking men. I just want to clear the air that--”
There was a scream down the hallway, and I cursed under my breath when I saw half a dozen angry gnolbolds running down the gravel filled hallway toward us with raised weapons. They must have seen the light from our emberbrands or heard me talking. I considered our position for half a second while the four-foot tall dog-men ran toward us. If we fought them in the stairwell, I’d only have to take two or three at once, but Gratia wouldn’t really be able to help me with her axe swing. If I fought them in the open, it would probably be a bit riskier, but I could pull out my broadsword and have a much superior reach on the six of my opponents. These little creatures weren’t really that difficult to kill. They were probably only level one, and I doubted that I would have much of a problem taking out six of them quickly.
But then again, I didn’t have any armor or clothes on.
“Hold the stairs. Protect Allurie and Artus,” I told Gratia, and the dwarven woman nodded.
I stepped out of the stairwell, pulled the broadsword out of the sheath with my right hand, and charged the group of gnolbolds. They hadn’t expected my sudden movement, my battle shout, or my swords to glow with emberfire, and their front rank kind of skidded to a stop. The second row of them also stopped, but they were a little bit slower, and they almost knocked the first group over when they ran into them. The first three turned back to glare and bark at the second three, but then I was on them, and the long blade of my broadsword cleaved the head off of two of the short monsters with a single swing.
I swung the short sword down like I was cracking a whip, and the edge of the blade snapped in and out of a third gnolbold’s skull with a wet sounding bounce. Then I thrust forward with the broadsword to spear a fourth through the chest. He was actually wearing a rusty chain mail shirt, but the point of my sword didn’t seem to care in the slightest, and the blade shish kabobed his body like an overripe tomato.
The last two gnolbold’s screeched with terror and made an attempt to turn around, but I kicked the closest one in the back with my left foot. His short body lifted off of the ground and then slammed into the other creature that was behind him.
I yanked my broadsword out of the body I’d just impaled and then leapt toward the two on the ground. My short sword pierced the back of the left one, cut through his ribs, and then cleaved his heart in twain. The last one tried to leap from the ground and scurry away, but I waved my longer sword, and I chopped both of his legs out from under him. The creature screamed, but I ripped my sword back around and removed his head from his neck. His red life bar instantly turned empty, and a spray of dark red blood poured over the gravel when his corpse fell.
I flicked my weapons around to spray the blood from them, and then I slid both of the blades back into their sheathes. I was getting used to the movement of drawing my weapons, and it kind of did make me feel like a total badass when I drew or sheathed them. I could totally understand why Zarra’s designers wanted everything to feel real. The mechanism that Astafar Unlimited used to change weapons seemed so fake to me now.
“Woooooo weee! For a naked homo human, you sure know how to fight!” Gratia shouted from the safety of the stairwell.
“Leo is wonderful! He is going to make a man so happy someday,” Allurie sighed longingly.
“Just not me,” Artus said. “I prefer our friendship how it is.”
“Arrrgh. You guys, come on. I’m--” I stopped myself mid-sentence. Allurie was all sorts of annoying, but if she thought I was gay, it might mean she would leave me alone until we could get back to Jerjay’s place, or at least until we escaped from the city. I didn’t need to really explain my sexual preference to her. It was actually easier this way.
“We are going to have a bunch of these assholes coming up the stairs in a few seconds. We need a plan,” I said as I tiptoed around the corpses. It was possible that the crowd down below heard our struggle, but I kind of doubted it. The hallway that we had fought in was rather lengthy, and the rest of the gnolbolds were still a few hundred yards below the top of the winding stairs.
I heard my friends crunch the gravel as they walked behind me, and I gestured for them to stay put at the corner so that I could creep to the edge of the stairs and check the situation below. I crawled across the last few feet of sharp gravel and marveled at how the pebbles kind of dug into my bare knees. I doubted that I would ever get tired of this game, and I wondered if Zarra’s company could one day allow people to upload their consciousness into the thing so that they wouldn’t have to worry about aging. It was all sorts of crazy sci-fi sounding, but the game was so dang real feeling. I was sure that a bunch of people would love to do it.
Then a realization struck me a few seconds before I reached the edge of the stairs.
I’d be an owner of Arnacript as soon as I signed the paperwork. It would be my company, and I would have a serious stake in making sure that it was the best game possible. The realization made a smile come to my lips. Curing my parents was my main objective here, but I was really looking forward to playing this game and making it the best it could be. Astafar Unlimited had changed the world when it hit the market, but I knew Ohlavar Quest would make an even larger impact.
I reached the very edge of the stone stairs and peeked over the lip. I hadn’t heard any drumming, or dancing, or cheering, but I still saw the
glow from the flames. I wondered if the horde had moved onward after they sent those last six to investigate what had happened to their other friends. As soon as I looked down into the chamber my breath caught in my throat.
Hundreds of red eyes were staring up at me.
“Ahhh shit,” I moaned as the chamber filled with the roar of their anger. The biggest boss gnolbold seemed to screech the loudest, and he gestured to the foot of the stairways across the chamber with the point of his long blade.
“Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit!” I jumped to my feet and took a step back past the corner of the top hallway.
“That’s not good!” Gratia sighed as she rolled her eyes. “Why did you have to get their attention?”
“I wasn’t trying!”
“Do we need to run up the stairs?” Artus asked.
“No. Well, yes. You all stand in the corner. Maybe go grab some weapons from the dead gnolbolds. I’ll try to hold them at the top of the stairs. Gratia, if any of them makes it past me, hit them with your axe. If we need to, we can fall back through that hallway and get to the stairs, but I’m worried that the guards will--
“Leo! Look! I see the light at the other stairs at the end of the hall. Oh! It is the guards! Yay!” Artus, Gratia, and I turned to where Allurie pointed and saw a group of four Cutno guards descend the stairs. The men had their swords drawn and emberbrands in their left hands. The men saw Allurie waving to them from across the hallway, and they shouted up the stairs.
“Oh, fuck me.” I poked my head out from around the corner and saw that the mass of gnolbolds had reached the bottom of the stairs. They were like an army of thickly packed ants, and I had to guess there were at least a hundred and fifty of them. It would probably take them half a minute to reach the top of the stairs.
But the armored Cutno guards were running toward us from the other stairwell, and I guessed that they would reach us in only fifteen seconds.
Yep.
Fuck.
Me.
Lion's Quest: Undefeated: A LitRPG Saga Page 30